New Death and Crust

I’ve been flakey to the point of really annoying the Captain, which as it happens doesn’t take much doing. At least I’ve known him long enough that he doesn’t threaten to set off a tactical nuke in the bunker every time I don’t get the duty logs filed. But you know how it is: everyone’s patience has its limits. Anyway, I don’t even really have a good excuse for lagging. Really, I’ve spent every free moment in the last couple of weeks at the bottom of a bottle and just haven’t had the energy to get things posted. As a result, things have piled up a little. There are bands out there (you know who you are) to whom I have made undertakings about getting things reviewed and stuff. I’m going to work through the backlog.

I’ve heard a lot of stuff recently, but the thing that really sticks out for me is the Töxik Death demo. These Norwegians have apparently been around for quite some time (2003 if the information on the web is to be believed), but this is their second release, the first having been an EP of some kind. They must really have been swilling a lot of Ringnes if it took them nine years to get it together. Perhaps there is something to be respected in that. In any case, what I do know for a fact about this band is that they rock incredibly fucking hard. This is raw, primal death metal played at blistering fucking speed. There are some blast beat passages thrown in for good measure, but the vast majority of this is just breakneck thrash with no quarter asked. It’s a little tough to tell what’s going on lyrically, although song titles like “TerrorSexSlaughter” do not portend a particularly high level of consciousness. On the other hand, you’d have to say that they are of a piece with the rest of the product.

For those with an interest in knowing more, they did an interview with another site here and one of their cuts has been uploaded to Youtube here.

I stumbled on to Bombs of Hades quite by accident. They’ve been a thing since 2002, driven forward by Jonas Ståhlhammar and Anders Ekman who were both in Abhoth in the late 80s/early 90s (their Forever to Be . They put out a demo in 2006 called Meathook Diaries which was ok but nothing to write home about. Their first full CD, Chambers of Abominations which came out in 2010, was a big stylistic step forward. The Serpent’s Redemption came out in October and is pretty much more of the same…only better. This is death metal with an even mixture of crusty and Gothenburg influences. Buzzsaw guitars and guttural vocals really pop in the mix. It’s not quite Nominon, as it has a bit more of a straight rock influence, but those who loved Terra Necrosis will most likely dig this as well. These guys have been doing this sort of thing for a long time and it really shows. The arrangements are pretty straightforward, but also very effective. You don’t find yourself scratching your head and wondering why this part came after that, as you do on some of the rawer releases in this vein. I have to say, I really love the black and white cover as well. It adds a really down market element to the whole thing which makes it that much more appealing. Here is a bit of footage of them doing a cut from their earlier release, while this is the first cut off of The Serpent’s Redemption. Thrash on you crazy diamonds.

Finally, I picked up a copy of Chaos Reigns, the compilation of EP releases and stuff from Denmark’s Nuclear Death Terror. Props to the people at Southern Lord for putting this thing out. NDT was a band whose name I’d heard but really hadn’t gotten around to pursuing. Did I say Denmark? Jeez, I guess I mean Australia, since that’s where they’ve decamped to since last I heard about them (at least if their Facebook page is to be believed). In any case, there is a lot to like about these guys, not least the fact that they seem to have coalesced out of the squatter scene and to have some actual political consciousness, which is of course not always the case with this kind of music. This is thick, metal tinged crust, reminding one sometimes of Nausea, at other times of more straight crust acts like Warcollapse. The singer sounds like he is actually pulling pieces of his lungs out, which you have to really appreciate.

Ok, enough from me for now. I’ll be back in a day or two with a bit of new d-beat for you. I also have a couple of book reviews in the works. Maybe once I get this shit posted I can convince the Captain to take his finger off the button.